MAGICAL FOREST WEDDING

How did you two meet and get engaged?

We met through a mutual friend back in 2014 as Lewis was in the same band as him, we then got chatting and met for a coffee at a quaint hideaway tea room in the woods and we've been together since then. He proposed to me 2 years later while I was making a cup of tea and I thought he was joking at first but soon realised he was serious and obviously said yes!

The dress and the look

I really wanted a relaxed, vintage feel to my dress and something with a bit of lace, I would come out in sweats going near a high street bridal shop with big meringue dresses and pressure to buy, I came across Indie Bride London on Instagram and loved the style of the dresses and the boho chic vibe they gave off. I booked an appointment with the lovely Miina at the gorgeous showroom in London (what an amazing space by the way!) and after trying on 2 or 3 dresses I completely fell in love with the Jill dress, I loved the material and scooped back with the tie detail and how comfortable I felt in it. The process of purchasing a beautifully handmade dress was so simple and stress free, Miina was brilliant especially as I dislocated my knee and tore the ligaments on my hen weekend, so was in a full leg brace and on crutches until a week before the wedding which made it pretty tricky to get to London for a fitting. We ended up doing this 4 weeks before the big day and she altered it while I waited but it was just so perfect! 

Makeup and accessories

My friend/bridesmaid did my make-up on the day and my step-sister/bridesmaid did everyone's hair, so it was all hands on deck on the morning of the wedding. My flower crown and the groom and best man's buttonhole flowers were created by Folkey Dokey.

Groom's outfit

Waistcoat-ASOS, trousers, Shoes and Shirt- Debenhams. The rings were made by my very talented husband Lewis at Daisy Chain Jewellers, Boxmoor.

Venues and decor

We spend a lot of our time walking and mountain biking in the woods, so we wanted our wedding to reflect our love for nature and the outdoors. We chose to hold our ceremony in our chosen spot in Ashridge forest, Hertfordshire were we spend so much time, so big thanks to the National Trust for allowing this. Our amazing laid back Celebrant was Elspeth Thomson and Lewis made an archway from branches foraged from the woods.

We then had our reception at a local village hall in Potten End, Berkhamsted which our family kindly helped us decorate the night before. The flowers were provided by our good friends at The Florist, Boxmoor. They also made the gorgeous floral piece on the archway in the woods, we wanted a wild flower, forestry feel with lot's of ferns that we used for decoration. 

Entertainment

We had a great musician Nick Stephenson play some of our favourite songs early in the evening, which got people up on the dance floor, we had also created a wedding playlist and hired a PA system to have all of the songs we love play through the night.

We made a Photo Booth background with lots of props and a guestbook to stick photos in throughout the night. We also made some home-made strawberry jam for favours which everyone said was delicious. 

Food and cake

We chose our favourite food, pizza! We had the Hidden Gem Pizza company which was actually a really cool restored vintage horse box, I still dream of those pizza's! They also stayed and served bacon rolls for later in the evening. We did an antipasti / Italian style buffet and our families all helped with making cakes and brownies for dessert along with a cheese tower.

The cake was made by my friend/bridesmaid Nicola with Disney's Robin Hood and Maid Marian for our cake topper!  

Photography

And lastly our amazing photos were taken by Binky Nixon and Sally Forder, as soon as I met Binky she put us at ease and knew she was the photographer for us. They were both amazing on the day, they got stuck into helping with things from the start and just made us laugh so much, all of our guests commented what a fab pair they were.

 
- Mel -